“Sailing to Byzantium” as a spiritual journey towards perfection and immortality

Answer

Discuss the poem “Sailing to Byzantium” as a spiritual journey towards perfection and immortality.

Or, “Sailing to Byzantium” deals with Yeats’ journey from the sensual to the spiritual world. Discuss.

“Sailing to Byzantium” (1927) is one of the greatest poems of the Irish poet W. B. Yeats (1865–1939). The poem shows the struggle of keeping the soul alive inside a weak and dying human body. The speaker is an old man. He leaves the world of the young and begins a spiritual journey to Byzantium, an ancient city famous for religion and art. There, he hopes to rise above death and become like an immortal work of art.

Yeats himself was growing old when he wrote this poem. That is why the poem clearly describes the change from the pleasures of the physical world to the search for spiritual perfection and immortality.

The Limitations of the Physical World: The poem opens with an image of the world of youth, full of life, love, and energy. Young lovers embrace each other, birds sing, and the waters are alive with fish. Yeats writes,

“That is no country for old men. The young

In one another’s arms, birds in the trees.”

This world is beautiful and full of sensual joy, but it ignores old age. The speaker feels that he no longer belongs here. In this lively world, the old are neglected. This marks the starting point of his journey.

Journey to Byzantium – Seeking Spiritual Light: The poet then turns away from this world of pleasure. He compares an old man to a “tattered coat upon a stick.” This image shows how the body grows weak and ugly with age. Yet he believes the soul can still live strongly if it turns away from the physical body and seeks the spiritual. To give life to the soul, he begins his journey to Byzantium, a city full of religion, wisdom, and art.

Transcending Mortality: Yeats imagines himself sailing across the seas to reach the holy